Saturday, Auburn American Fishery Society removed unsightly garbage from highways during its yearly Adopt-A-Mile litter cleanup.
The organization held the litter cleanup with Lee County People Against a Littered State as part of the "Don't Drop It On Alabama" initiative.
"Don't Drop It On Alabama" is a statewide spring event to clean up roadways through April 23.
"We'd like to get as many volunteers--local volunteers--as we can," said Liesa Simpson, vice president of Lee County PALS. "It's really good for local residents to come and see what is going on in their community--how other organizations are making an effort to clean up their roadways."
Fisheries graduate student Laurie Earley said the public should volunteer at a litter cleanup to see how much of a problem pollution is in the area.
"If people just drive by, they don't have any idea what is on the side of the road," Earley said. "When you're on foot picking up everything, you actually see what is going on."
She said she was shocked by the amount of pollution she found on the roadside.
"I come from areas where you don't see this on the side of the road," she said. "From an environmental standpoint, there's so much stuff we're putting into it.
"It's really important to have these cleanups--especially stream cleanups and road cleanups."
Earley said she thinks there are a lot of unknowns about how pollutants affect the environment.
Recent studies show that pollutants have reversed the sex of fish, Earley said.
In two-and-a-half hours, 10 volunteers picked up 30 bags of trash along one mile of highway.
Besides water and Coca-Cola bottles, most of the containers volunteers find are beer bottles and beer cans, Simpson said.
"People don't want open containers in their vehicles--they're driving and drinking anyway, but they're just throwing them out on the side of the road."
Erin Cash, graduate in fisheries, said she was amazed by the type of litter she found.
"It's surprising how many things you find on the side of the road, especially litter for companies that don't exist in Auburn," Cash said. "It gives you a good idea of how many people come into town and leave their stuff around."
Drivers should keep each other accountable when it comes to keeping roadways clean.
"Citizens can ticket for seeing someone throw litter out of their vehicles," Simpson said.
Drivers can call in the license plate number of the vehicle from which the offense was committed to the local police.
"A lot of people don't want to take that responsibility, but I think if a lot more people did, we'd have a lot cleaner roadways," Simpson said.
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